Union solidarity is supposed to be solid as a brick wall, but ATI steelworkers say union bricklayers are fracturing that wall.
On Wednesday about 20 of the 2,200 union steelworkers who have been locked out of their jobs by ATI since Aug. 15 showed up for picket duty.
But they were picketing along Route 22 in Wilkins Township — at the Brickworkers and Allied Craftworkers Local 9 — not any ATI Flat-Rolled Products plant.
Steelworker Dave Rodgers, 61, of Penn Hills, a member of United Steelworkers Local 1196 in Brackenridge, said he organized the picketing to protest 10 bricklayers from Local 9 who have been crossing their picket lines to work at the ATI mill in Harrison.
Bricklayers who normally work at the ATI plant in Harrison are members of USW Local 1196. Their work involves replacing special heat-resistant brick in the furnaces and the ladles that handle molten metal.
Rodgers said the Brickworkers and Allied Craftworkers workers have been doing work at the plant throughout the five-month lockout at 13 ATI Flat-Rolled Products plants in six states, including those in Harrison, Gilpin and Vandergrift in the Alle-Kiski Valley.
“It's not right, and it's been going on for too long,” Rodgers said. “They (USW leadership) went in and talked to them about it and they left for a while. Then they came back. They haven't left since.”
“What are they thinking — that this is a good idea?” said Ed Piovesan, 49, of Vandergrift, who works at the Harrison steel mill.
“Their greed surpasses any ideology of what a union is supposed to be,” he said.
A secretary who answered the doorbell at the Brickworkers and Allied Craftworkers office said all of the local's officers were in Pittsburgh for a meeting.
There was no response to a request to have one of the union officers contact the Valley News Dispatch. A voice mail from a reporter left on the cellphone of Norman Ringer, the local's executive vice president, received no response.
ATI spokesman Dan Greenfield could not be reached for comment.
Fran Arabia, USW Local 1196 president, said he heard about the planned protest Tuesday.
“My members, I'm proud of them,” he said. “They took it upon themselves to do this. They've had enough.”
Arabia said his understanding is that the Brickworkers and Allied Craftworkers leadership said in the past that they had to cross the line because the contractor for whom they agreed to work had a national service and maintenance agreement with ATI.
Under such agreements, according to Arabia, contractors agree to complete any work or project that was underway without any subsequent labor disputes halting work, which compels union members to remain on the job.
Once the work is completed, the union workers can decline any further work without the contractor or union members being liable.
Arabia is skeptical that's the case because the bricklayers did leave ATI at one point, but then returned two weeks later and kept coming back.
“We're locked out and we're having union contractors cross the picket lines,” said Steve Humeniuk, 58, of Kittanning as cars and trucks whizzing by on Route 22 honked their horns. “This should have been done a long time ago.”
Jack Wells, 58, of Buffalo Township is one of the USW bricklayers who is locked out. He said there were about 17 or 18 employed at the Harrison steel mill, but the lockout has reduced that number to about 10 because of retirements or people finding other jobs.
“It's a shame that we've got to picket a union hall,” Wells said. “I'm flabbergasted. They really opened up a can of worms over this.”
Connie Ortman, 59, a Local 1196 steelworker from Kittanning, can't understand how the Local 9 bricklayers keep crossing the picket lines.
“People have died for unions,” Ortman said. “These people crossing another union's picket line is like spitting on their graves.”
Steelworker Mickey Karns, 58, of Rural Valley, hopes the picketing stirs things up.
“Four months of yelling at them hasn't done much,” Karns said. “Maybe embarassing them at their own union hall will.”
Tom Yerace is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4675 or tyerace@tribweb.com.
